I'm just really loving the response I'm getting for this fanfic! It makes it much more fun to write when people are really interested in it!
Carol-Lilyan: thanks for the great review! I'm glad you got so into the story you went right onto the second chapter 8D and so far from the voting a lemon is looking definite in the future.
Nyanayneko: Thanks for the review it really helped keep focus on this story. I'm you like the pace that I'm going with this.
Feed of Mundane Thoughts: Well Tegami Bachi is still an on-going series, its not complete yet. You could check should have the latest chapters of the manga. The anime took a break after episode 27 I think where it finally hits the plot line of where Gauche is. As for other fics I have some ideas I'm just stewing until I get a decent plot.
Here's chapter three so enjoy and please review~
"Lag! Steak says the weak spot is under its neck!" Niche cried out in the air as she used her hair to block the legs of the Gaichuu attacking them on another delivery.
"A-alright Niche!" Lag shouted breathing heavily, not because of fighting the Gaichuu but because he had bags under his eyes and he could barely seem to focus.
"I fill my shidan with the fragments of my heart!" Lag shouted trying to focus as he was starting to see double, "release akabari!"
The red arrow of energy left Lag's nocturne #12 and shot straight up for the bottom part of the neck of the gaichuu and it struck true making the giant insect glow before it shattered into tiny pieces raining down on him and Niche. Lag feel down to his knees breathing heavily as he dropped his weapon.
"Lag? Are you okay?" Niche asked worried as she came up close to the exhausted bee.
"I…I'm fine Niche…com..come on we have to finish the delivery." Lag replied straining as he got up.
"Nunii nunini!" Steak replied looking worried at Lag as the bee looked like he was about to fall over on the spot.
"Steak thinks you should rest Lag," Niche said firmly but Lag just shook his head as he stood up a bit painfully onto his feet.
"I can handle it Niche it's just…a bit of a walk to the town…" Lag said as he walked forward.
Niche and Steak looked at each other before running after Lag, to make sure that he didn't faint where he stood, which look like it would happen any second.
The thing was, it's been almost three full days since he had that first dream about Zazie and they just never seem to stop. They kept waking him up in the middle of the night and he couldn't get back to sleep after he had woken up. It doesn't help that at the oddest times he seemed to run into Zazie, but the dreams were still quite clear in his head so he couldn't even look at Zazie much less talk to him without his face burning brightly. On the walk, Lag wobbled a few times onto the ground but he managed to stand up by himself.
They soon got to the town that was designated and the two of them looked for an address. It didn't take them very long before they stopped at a large pristine church. Lag used the door-knocker on the large double set of wooden doors and soon a kind woman stepped out and was surprised to see two young children in front of her door, even more that one was a letter bee.
"May I help you children?" she asked smiling gently.
"Y-yes ma'am we have a letter for you…" Lag said as he looked in his bag for the letter before holding it out for the woman to take.
"Oh my thank you very much! But I'm surprised that such a young boy like you would be a letter bee." She said as she signed the paper to confirm that the letter was received.
"It…its no problem miss, and I enjoy being a bee." Lag replied smiling, a bit tiredly.
"Are you alright?" the women asked maternal instinct starting to take over when she saw how physically exhausted Lag looked. " Would you like to come in and rest for a bit? We have plenty of spare beds here."
"That's alright ma'am, I need to get on my way back to the hive." Lag replied shaking his head.
"Then at least stay for a meal please? I believe its quite a journey back to Yuusari and it looks like you two had a battle." She said.
"A-alright ma'am…" Lag said tiredly but gave the woman a worn out smile, "thank you…"
The woman ushered them inside the church and closed the door behind them and lead them towards the kitchen where there were several things already cooking as some younger looking women were cooking.
"Miss. Elena who're these two?" one of the girls stirring a pot asked.
"This is oh forgive my rudeness I never got your names." Elena said embarrassedly.
"I'm Lag and that's my dingo Niche and Steak." Lag replied pointing to them.
"Hmm…such a pretty young girl and all she wears is that pink dress?" another girl questioned looking at the outfit Niche was wearing.
Niche got defensive and pressed closer to Lag as she gripped his arm was looking at the women warily as if they were going to jump her.
"Uhm…N..Niche likes that dress since she's my dingo she needs that outfit to help move around…" Lag stated.
"Ah…that makes sense. She must be a strong girl to be your dingo Lag-kun…" one of the girls said smiling and Lag smiled back as he looked back at Niche.
"She's the best partner I could ask for as a dingo." He said and sat down at a chair with Niche quickly taking the seat next to him.
"That's good to know that you two take such good care of each other. I hope you two like stew." Elena said, "Rose, Aimee can you please put the other food on the bowl while I get the others?"
"Yes ma'am!" the two replied as Elena walked out once putting the beef stew on the table.
"What others' are Miss Elena talking about?" Lag asked taking a bowl of stew for himself and handing on to Niche. The blonde maka girl sniffed the food before her eyes widen at how good it smelled and quickly grabbed her spoon and quickly started to dig into the stew.
"Oh you see we run an orphanage for children who had lost their family by the gaichuu." Rose said as he put down some more food.
"That's very kind of you…" Lag said as he started eating.
Soon the kitchen door opened and several children came running in happily and grabbed their chairs, sitting down immediately and grabbed their food. It wasn't until after they had gotten their food before they had noticed two new occupants at the table.
"Who dey?" a young boy asked narrowing his eyes, especially at Lag when he saw the Letter Bee uniform.
"Now don't be mean Clive, he and his nice dingo came and gave us a letter. A letter from your sister Noel…" Elena said and all the children stopped eating and looked at Elena.
"Re…really! You mean big sis Noel is alright!" Clive asked.
"Yes, it seems she found a nice job and will be able to send money to help us." Elena stated.
"Yay! Oh thank you thank you so much mister!" a little girl cried jumping out of her seat and hugging lag tightly. "we has been so worried 'bout big sis Noel for a long long time!"
"I'm happy to have delivered it, this is why I love being a Letter Bee…" Lag said patting the little girl's head. The girl's eye's sparkled as she looked up at him and she asked shyly.
"Ne ne mister do you has a girlfriend?"
Lag's face burned brightly at the concept.
"N..no…wh-why would you ask something like that!" the poor boy asked.
"Good! Cuz when I get bigger Imma be your girlfriend cuz you're really really nice, brought that letter from big sis and you're cute!" she stated firmly.
"EEEEEEHHHHHH!"
"Now Mimi! Don't go declaring something like that!" Elena admonished as she got the clingy girl off the letter bee.
"but Miss Elenaaaaaa!" Mimi whined as she pouted when she was placed in her chair.
"He may not have a girlfriend but perhaps he has someone in mind." Elena stated firmly. "you know someone he thinks about all the time or even dreams about."
At the mention of dreams Lag's brain seemed to recognize the word and familiar images started to once again flow through his head and face burning brightly.
"Oh my Lag-kun a…are you alright!" Elena exclaimed but the poor letter bee couldn't hear her as his mind was too focused on the images. Niche looked up at Steak who was still resting on top of her head.
"Niche thinks Lag there's something wrong with Lag…" She said looking up at the white critter.
"Nuni…" Steak replied.
It was a while later when Lag and Niche finally left the church to head back to Yuusari. Niche didn't say much but she could hear lag shaking his head and muttering constantly under his breath looking stressful and confused. She had to nearly catch Lag a few times when he stumbled or crashed into something. She may have been a bit naïve but Niche knew when there was something wrong with her Letter Bee.
"Come on Niche we…we need to get to the Hive and report…" Lag said sluggishly as he dragged his feet inside the hive after pushing the door opened.
Lag only made it a few more steps before his body could take no more and he fell down and hit the ground hard, making several letter bees stop what they were doing and looked at the fallen letter bee.
"Lag!" Niche cried out running over to him. Steak jumped off of her head and gently head butted the prone letter bee's body trying to wake him up. Niche was at a loss on what to do, usually Lag knew what to do in situations but she wasn't sure herself.
"Steak you stay here with Lag, I'm go get Sylvette!" Niche said. But just as she was about to run off back home a deep voice stopped him.
"What's going on here? And why is Letter Bee Lag Seeing on the ground?" a tall familiar one-eyed doctor asked. Niche recognized him as the guy that had taken Steak away from her and Lag back to his laboratory.
"You you're a person that makes people feel better right?" Niche asked, remembering something about the doctor and research.
"Yes I am in a way…" Dr. Thunderland jr. replied as he put down his bag and rolled Lag over as he put two fingers against his neck to feel his pulse.
"Then make Lag better!" She said glaring up at him and pointed her swords at him. Most of the bees sweated and backed off but the doctor didn't seemed bothered.
"I'll see what I can do." Dr. Thunderland replied as he picked up Lag's small lithe body easily and carried him back to his lab in the floors below.
"He has a slight fever, skin is a bit moist, bags under his eyes and sweating a lot…has he been getting enough sleep?" Dr. Thunderland asked as Lag was on one of the tables and breathing heavily.
"Niche doesn't think so, Niche hears Lag wake up in the middle of the night…" she replied.
"Hmm sleep deprivation could be the cause of why he was so tired," the corpse doctor said to himself. "Anything else?"
"Urgh…d..doctor thunderland?" Lag moaned out as he blearily opened his eye.
"You fainted Seeing, what exactly happened to cause you to faint like that. I know you take good care of yourself especially with Suede's little sister." Dr. Thunderland commented.
"Uhm…I…its…" Lag stuttered out but closed his mouth when a firm glare from the corpse doctor shut him up.
"Seeing…."
"Its…its these dreams I've been having…" Lag said quietly, "I…I don't know what they mean and they're really…vivid…"
"I see so what kind of dreams are the about?" Dr. Thunderland asked. He raised an eyebrow when he saw Lag clam up and his face going red.
"Er…it..it involves Zazie…"
"The boy with the cat fetish?" Dr. thunderland said blandly.
At this Niche was paying rapt attention and focusing on what the two were saying.
Lag and Niche just stared back blinking owlishly.
"What's a fetish?" Lag asked after a moment of silence, making the doctor cough.
"Nevermind, so what did these dreams have that involved Letter Bee Zazie?" the doctor asked rather interested in what the young bee in front of him could've possibly dreamed to get him in the state that he currently was in.
"Uhm…it…it involves Zazie doing…things…" Lag replied unsure on how to elaborate.
"Things? Like what? Describe them." Thunderland stated.
Lag's face was burning bright by this time that he could've been trying to imitate a tomato.
"He he…had…had me pressed up against a wall and his face was really really close to mine and he w-well kissed me on my neck a bit b-before he…uhm…er….he had his leg w-well…" Lag tried to explain but was feeling more embarrassed the more he tried to describe it.
Dr. Thunderland on the other hand recognized what kind of dream he was having and coughed loudly making Lag stop.
"Seeing, I'm going to ask you something a bit personal okay? This all pertains to why you're sick." He stated.
"O-okay…?"
"Have you ever thought of your preference?" Dr. Thunderland asked.
"My preference? For what?" Lag replied making the corpse doctor sweat.
"Let me ask a different question…Seeing have you ever been given THE talk? The one where little babies come from?" he tried again, hoping for a positive answer on this question.
"I…. don't think so…my Aunt never really explained something like that to me and these are the first kinds of dreams I've ever gotten." Lag replied frowning as he tried to remember before looking back up at Dr. Thunderland.
Dr. Thunderland got a strange look on his face that was a mixture of disbelief and horror…mostly horror as he looked at Lag with his one good eye. The expression on his face faded after a few seconds before he started muttering under his breath, adding a few curses here and there before he finally came to a decision.
"Stay there and don't move at ALL…I think I figured out what may be your problem and I'm going to get someone to explain everything to you." He replied and quickly turned around and left the room.
"Ne…Lag…Zazie was the one that hurt you and made you sick?" Niche asked frowning.
"H-huh…uhm…I guess something like that Niche…" Lag replied as he rested against the table he was on and stared at the ceiling, "Niche can you go back home and tell Sylvette what happened so she doesn't worry that I'm late please?"
"Okay Lag, come on Steak let's go!" Niche said as she leapt out of the room as the heavy steeled doors shut behind her as Lag closed his eyes and hoped for a dreamless sleep.
"and then later sir you have a meeting down with the councilmen about new proposals you have to read through…" Aria stated as she looked at her clipboard and flipped it over.
Head bee Largo Lloyd couldn't help but let out a loud yawn as he played with his pencil making Aria send an irritated look at him.
"Am I boring you sir?" Aria growled making Largo laugh nervously and drop his pencil.
"N-no! of course not Aria Link!" Largo replied holding his hands up defensively.
But before Aria could reprimand Largo the doors burst opened and the two looked and saw that it was Dr. Thunderland Jr. that had just barged into the room. He made his way towards the two, but moved closer to Aria and grabbed her arm.
"I need you to come with me…" He stated bluntly pulling her out of the room.
"Wait a minute! Dr. Thunderland! Let me go this instant I need SOME explanation on why you're dragging me away from my duties!" Aria cried out protesting angrily as she tried to dig her heels into the floor to help with some resistance, but against the bigger and stronger male it didn't do much.
"I'm sure he has a good reason Aria, "Largo replied smiling as he waved at them, "you need a break anyway so just take your time."
"Largo Lloyd when I get back here I'm going to-" Aria threatened but was yanked out the door before she could finish.
Aria was protesting the entire way Dr. Thunderland was dragging her all the way back to the laboratory and making a scene.
"Dr. Thunderland tell me why you dragged me away from my duties now before I do something drastic…." Aria growled out as they stopped just in front of the lab.
"I need you to explain certain…concepts for Letter Bee Lag Seeing." Dr. Thunderland stated.
"Explain what exactly to him that you couldn't do yourself hm?" Aria asked now that her arm was released she put her hands on her hips. She watched interested as if he looked uncomfortable for the first time that she's known him.
"It pertains to why Lag fainted…" he replied.
"what! Why is he hurt! Is he sick!" Aria asked shooting off questions as she looked worried for the younger silver haired boy.
"That's why I need you to…well let's go in and I'll explain better…" Dr. Thunderland replied opening the doors and walking in, Aria instead ran right past him and up to the table where Lag was lying down in.
"You couldn't have given him a bed or something!" she asked exasperated as she gently combed her fingers through his short hair and waking him up.
"A-Aria-san?" Lag asked weakly looking up at the tall blonde haired woman.
"What happened to him?" Aria asked seriously as she pushed up her glasses.
"He's exhausted because of a lack of sleep." Dr. Thunderland replied. "apparently he's been receiving strange…dreams that confused him and making it hard for him to fall asleep."
"Dreams? What kind of dreams has he been getting?" Aria asked, "and why do you need me here?"
"For a few reasons…your music will help Lag recover faster from his exhaustion and…" Dr. Thunderland started as he cleared his throat, "and you can explain certain human concepts to him."
"Certain human concepts?" she asked.
"Lag…please tell Arai what you told me about your dreams involving the other Letter Bee." Dr. Thunderland asked.
Lag turned red again but nodded and explained to Aria what exactly he had told the doctor earlier. Once Lag was finished there was a nice pink tinge on Aria's face before she turned and gave the corpse doctor a look that made him suddenly wish he was a corpse.
"You brought me down here to explain the birds and the bees to him!" she hissed out.
"He hasn't been educated and I don't think I'm the best person for something like that. He looks up to you like a big sister almost and not only that he doesn't even know if he has a preference." Dr. Thunderland rationalized.
Aria pinched the bridge of her nose.
"I can't believe you put me in this situation."
"It was the best solution I could come up with!"
"You owe me for this big time , I am not going to play some family figure to just anyone and explain things to them…" Aria said stiffly as she glanced at the boy on the table and sighed as she folded her arms.
"But…?" Dr. Thunderland ventured as he looked at the assistant head bee.
"But Lag Seeing is an except to this I guess…but not more of this. EVER." She added poking her finger into the doctor's chest to emphasize each word.
"Agreed." Dr. Thunderland agreed quickly and backed away to give the two some privacy.
"Lag, can you hear me?" She asked, just to make sure that Lag was coherent enough to hear and understand her.
"Uh huh…what was Dr. Thunderland talking about? Birds and bees?" he asked innocently.
"Lag, what I'm going to explain is something all people need to know and it'll help explain a bit why you're dreams are what they are." Aria replied clearing her throat as she grabbed a seat and sat down on it. She knew it was going to take a while to explain everything to the innocent fourteen-year-old letter bee.
"Now you see when a man and woman love each other…."
"That weird doctor better make Lag all better…" Niche pouted as she walked the streets of Yuusari to get back to Sylvette's house.
She kept glaring at the ground as she made her way to the house until she stopped when her ears picked up some familiar voices.
"Zazie! You almost hit me with your aotoge! If I hadn't gotten out in time after I had planted those bombs…" Conner whined to the darker haired letter bee.
"Che I wouldn't have hit you Conner you worry too much. Besides I did wait until you were out of the way." Zazie replied.
"Yeah barely!" the larger letter bee cried out.
"Zazie?" Niche muttered to herself frowning before her eyes lit up in realization before narrowing and sprinting off.
"Nu…nuni!" Steak exclaimed confused on why Niche was suddenly running.
When the creature saw Niche running towards the two letter bees it was getting a bad feeling, and it was right because he saw the girl's hair turn into the golden swords as she threw them straight in front of Zazie nearly hitting him and stopping him in his tracks.
"WHOA! What the hell Niche!" Zazie cried out thankful for his quick reflexes that those swords didn't hit him as the girl soon stood in front of him and was glaring.
"N-Niche! Why did you try and hit Zazie!" Conner asked trying to play the mediator between the two.
He didn't want to get between Niche's swords or Zazie's aotoge but he knew that Lag would be upset if either his dingo or friend were hurt. Niche just continued glaring at Zazie before she stood on the ground with her feet instead of being held up by her hair.
"You stay away from Lag!" she cried out pointing a gloved hand at Zazie. "I don't want you to hurt him anymore!"
The cat boy just blinked and stared at her incredulously.
"What the hell! I would never hurt Lag ever Niche!" Zazie shouted back surprised at the accusation.
"Niche knows that Zazie did something! Lag couldn't sleep because of you and now he's with the doctor and sick!" Niche replied, "Lag kept muttering your name and acted all funny whenever you were mentioned or seen! So stay away from Lag or I'll make you!"
With that the girl jumped over them and ran the rest of the way to Sylvette's house leaving two bewildered bees behind her. Conner turned to a gaping Zazie and folded his arms.
"Nothing happened huh?" He asked dryly, "Niche doesn't seem to think so, you know how protective of Lag she is and if she threatened you then it must've been something."
When Conner didn't hear anything he continued talking trying to get something out of Zazie to make what just happened a bit clearer.
"She does have a point, whenever we ran into Lag he always seemed to avoid looking at you and escaping." He added. "Zazie come on I'm your best friend just tell me. I swear I won't tell anyone about it."
"…I kissed Lag." Zazie rebuked in a deadpanned voice as he folded his own arms and looked away.
"There see! Was that so hard to say and…you did WHAT!" Conner exclaimed his jaw hitting the ground. "Why…why in the world did you KISS Lag! I mean I know Lag could be a bit girly at times but do you even have a crush on him!"
"No! I…mean…I don't know okay!" Zazie hissed out, "Look I only kissed him because at the last delivery on that stupid holiday there was some tradition that the two messengers had to kiss!"
"Oh man I totally forgot about that!" Conner exclaimed and yelped when Zazie fisted the Conner's top and glowered at him.
"A little warning would be nice Conner…" Zazie stated in a low pissed off tone.
"Ehehe…noted Zazie…so uhm…what happened then?" Conner asked once he was released from the cat boy's hold.
"Nothing really…Lag has been avoiding me like the plague though and I don't know why…." He muttered, "and its been bugging me especially now with what Niche just said!"
"Well there's only one thing to do at this point." Conners said, "get the information from the horses mouth, or in this case Lag's. Come on Niche said he was the doctor's at the beehive so he must be in Dr. Thunderland's place."
"Yeah sure…anything to clear this whole mess out…" Zazie muttered shoving his hands into his pockets as he followed after the plump letter bee.
He couldn't but wonder on how exactly he was 'hurting' Lag as Niche had stated. He would only admit it to himself, but the smaller letter bee had grown on him since the first time he had met Lag during the Letter Bee test. The kid was different then most of the others in the hive, he seemed to bring some sort of life to the hive with his views on delivering letters and how he never gives up, especially with his search for Gauche Suede, Lag's mentor. Guache was the person who inspired him to become a letter bee in the first place; Zazie knew that because Lag talked about Gauche…a lot…
'I don't know why…but for some reason I always feel irritated when Lag goes on and on about how Gauche inspired him, helped him believe in himself…' Zazie thought to himself frowning.
He could just picture Lag's face whenever he talked about Gauche. Lag's face would light up, his face practically glowed as his eye would shine with adoration and that smile…that brilliant smile of complete faith and trust in Gauche made Zazie's insides twist. That the thought of Gauche being the only one to get that kind of reaction and especially that smile from Lag made him growl angrily.
"Zazie?"
The dark haired bee broke out of his thoughts and looked up to see a concerned Conner staring at him.
"Are you alright you were growling kind of loud…" Conner asked.
"Uh…yeah I'm fine…don't worry about it…" Zazie replied waving Conner off.
"Okay…it just sounded that you were really angry about something." The larger letter bee said before he turned around and continued walking ahead of Zazie.
'Why did I suddenly do that just by thinking about Gauche and Lag' Zazie thought to himself trying to figure out what he was feeling and then froze when he it hit him like a ton of bricks, 'Why the hell am I jealous of Lag's opinion of Gauche!' he thought wildly shaking his head,
Zazie thought about it for a few seconds and raised a hand to his head as he was in disbelief and shock over this realization.
"Oh hell…" Zazie groaned burying his face in the palm of his glove, "I think I may be in love with Lag…."